The identity of the Memphis City Council that will take office in January with six new members was still in flux at the end of a very long and frustrating Oct. 8 election night.

Memphis voters in five City Council districts have one more election to decide – the Nov. 19 council runoffs.

(Daily News File/Andrew J. Breig)

The races for four of those six open seats and the seat now held by an appointee to the council are going to a Nov. 19 runoff election – one week before Thanksgiving.

The healthy slate of runoff races was anticipated with so many candidates vying for council seats with no incumbent seeking re-election.

But the candidates grew more concerned about turnout in the runoffs when the Shelby County Election Commission changed the date from a month after the October election to six weeks after.

Early voting in the runoffs begins Oct. 30.

Incumbent council members Bill Morrison, Janis Fullilove, Reid Hedgepeth, Joe Brown, Kemp Conrad and Edmund Ford Jr. all easily won re-election. And newcomers Martavius Jones and Philip Spinosa claimed the two open super district council seats.

Jones, a former Shelby County Schools board member, beat Mickell Lowery, the son of outgoing council incumbent Myron Lowery, and Jacqueline Camper for the Super District 8 Position 3 seat.

Final unofficial returns from the Shelby County Election Commission were:

Martavius Jones: 19,302Mickell Lowery: 17,600Jacqueline Camper: 5,996

Spinosa emerged at the top of a five-candidate field for the Super District 9 Position 2 council seat. His closest competitor was New Olivet Baptist Church pastor and former Shelby County Schools board member Kenneth T. Whalum Jr.

Races headed to Nov. 19 runoffs

DISTRICT 2Frank Colvett and Rachel Knox are the runoff contenders in council District 2, the East Memphis-Cordova district that came open late in the campaign season when incumbent Bill Boyd announced he would not seek re-election.

DISTRICT 3In the Whitehaven-Hickory Hill District 3, former Shelby County Schools board member Patrice Jordan Robinson and former Memphis Education Association President Keith Williams were the top two contenders for the runoff.